5th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2019-2020

Since moving to our new town, my nature-loving son has spent most of his moments in the woods next to our house. He can usually be found wading around in the stream (Don't worry. It's only ankle deep.), chasing squirrels, and feeding deer straight from his hands. (Yes, you read that right. On more than one occasion, a deer has walked right up to him to snatch something from his palm.)

The stream has been a steady source for him to learn through play. It's inspired him to make catch-and-release traps in order to study the many species of water snakes that creep along the stream bed, has provided him with clay that he's used to create earthen pots, and has given him dozens upon dozens of agates to add to his collection.

As I've mentioned before, he's an autodidactic learner who has a special fondness for nature. Once he homes in on one particular element of the natural world, it's all he can think about. He reads about it, watches documentaries about it, and becomes a walking encyclopedic advocate for it. (I bet you think I'm exaggerating here, right? Nope. Not even a little bit.)

I've no doubt the woods and the stream will continue to be a constant classroom for him throughout the upcoming school year.

In addition to all-things-nature, here's what he'll be learning this year in 5th grade. Since we only homeschool 4-days a week, you can assume that each of these subjects will only be covered four times each week unless otherwise indicated.

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Content-rich Subjects

As always, he'll do all of his content-rich subjects like Morning time/Bible, history, science, art and creative writing with his older siblings. You can see those curriculum choices here>>>

Personal Devotions- every day

• The ESV Holy Bible for Kids

Language

• LLATL Purple Book (Use coupon code unlikelyhomeschool at checkout to get 15% off your entire purchase from Common Sense Press, the makers of LAHTL.)
• Finish All About Spelling level 4 and move on level 5
• Read for pleasure. (every day)
• Read the following books that correspond with the LLATL Purple Book. (He's already read three of the four titles that are recommended in the Book Study sections of the Purple Book. Since the book studies are not necessary elements of the program, I plan to just skip those three books. But he will read Caddie Woodlawn.
• If he's not currently working through an LLATL suggested book, he will read a chapter from a book that I assign to him. These will be classics, biographies, or exceptional fiction.

Math

• Teaching Textbooks 3.0 Math 6
• free online review games and apps (like Math Mateer and Monkey Math) for math process review (every few days) OR
• a flashcard drill with one of his brothers for 5 minutes

Copywork

• Character Handwriting Cursive- He will complete the second half of the book that he started last year.

World View- 1x a week

• Boyhood & Beyond- One day a week, instead of reading his normal Mom-assigned book, he will read a chapter from this book out loud to me. His older brothers, both, read it a couple years ago and still counts it as one of the best books they've ever read.

Typing- 1x a week

• Typing Instructor for Kids

Piano

• lesson 1x a week
• practice 5x a week

Life Skills

• He will continue to have child-of-the-day privileges and responsibilities.
• Clean his room and make his bed each day. 
• Daily chores: sweep one downstairs room, wipe down the upstairs bathroom, and empty the dishwasher with his younger brother.
• Help make lunch and dinner (Thursdays).
• Do 1-2 loads of laundry (Thursdays).
• Weekly Chores: three chores that he randomly selects from our chore jar.

Co-operative Learning

When I could not find a homeschool co-op in our new city, I decided to start one of my own. Currently, we are 17 families strong and are all set to launch into the school year with a great line-up of classes.

We'll meet the 1st and 3rd Thursday mornings of each month with an optional field trip offered on the 5th Thursdays. My son will be in the 4th-6th-grade group with his older brother and will enjoy the following classes during the first semester:

• Intro to Theater
• Exploring the Deep Sea

Second-semester classes will be determined towards the end of December.

He's a boy on a mission--to spend as much time in the woods as humanly possible. If I'm hoping to cultivate learning that will last, I'll have to find small, intentional ways to connect what he loves to what he's learning and vice versa. It won't always be easy, but I'm a homeschool mom which means I'm always up for the challenge!

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